No comments about Yeats (Irish Studies).

No comments about The Life And Correspondence Of Field Marshall Sir George Pollock.

No comments about Memoirs Of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842 To 1885.

No comments about La France pendant la Révolution: Tome 1.

No comments about Images of Oliver Cromwell: Essays for and by Roger Howell, Jr.

1 comments about Queen Victoria: Fifty Golden Years ; Incidents in the Queen's Reign (English Heritage) (English Heritage).

1. I thought this book was going to be bigger, and less stylized. I came to appreciate it better, though, because of that reason. Its produced very much like it was released in 1887, with that high-Victorian feel, and its size makes it easy to store on a shelf or on a coffee table.
   
   If you admire the Victorian age, or better still, Queen Victoria herself, this is a book that is fun to own and display!

No comments about Forging His Chains.

2 comments about Life on Air.

1. While mentioning several highpoints in his childhood, David Attenborough's book mainly covers his working career upon graduation from university. Most people will be familiar with his animal and natural world documentaries from the late 80s onwards. I was surprised that he almost fell into the BBC and that he first started his involvement in natural history in the 1950s. He covers in great detail the problems encountered in broadcasting live from the studio during the infancy of television and the limitations of filming in the wild with basic equipment. David Attenborough, besides being famous for his documentaries, is also one of TV's pioneers. For a long time as well, he was senior management within the BBC and largely responsible for a lot of the programming that that boradcaster produced in the 60s and 70s. This surprised me as I was only familiar with his later documentary work.
   
   Told with a lot of humour, the reader will meet all manner of fascinating people and animals in every corner of the world. This man has done more in his life than any of us will ever do and he has shared it with us on screen and in this marvellous book.



2. David Attenborough's 'Life on Air' gives a fascinating insight into the work of a true gentle man of the airwaves.
   
   The book is entirely readible with several unexpected laughs in store.
   
   A master at understating his own achievements, Attenborough tells the story of his work with the BBC, spanning an incredible fifty years. Often facing the worst inconveniences of tropical insects for days on end to get illusive shots of nature's wonders, he has tirelessly laboured to bring precious knowledge to the world of the richness of our planet.
   
   Highly recommended.

No comments about V. R. I. Queen Victoria: Her Life And Empire.

1 comments about Snakes and Ladders: Fergus Finlay.

1. Fergus Finlay was the chief spindoctor for the Irish Labour Party while Dick Spring was the leader. As such, he is uniquely placed to give an insider's view of what happened in a very eventful period in Irish politics.

   In fairness to Finlay, he explains at the outset that he is making no attempt to be impartial. He has his own side of the story, and that's what he's going to tell, without pulling any punches. As such he takes us on a sweeping tour of fifteen exciting years of Irish politics, through the Garret Fitzgerald led Government of 1982-87, Charles Haughey's years of power, the election of Mary Robinson, Haughey's downfall, the Fianna Fail/Labour coalition, the spectacular fall of that Government, the formation of the so-called "Rainbow" coalition and the evolution of the Peace Process.

   Through all these events we are getting Finlay's views as distinct from objective historical analysis, but once the reader bears in mind the fact that Finlay has his own fish to fry the trip can be quite rewarding. According to Finlay Dick Spring can do no wrong, Labour was primary force in anything that went right when in government and were as prophets crying in the wilderness when out of government.

   The written history of Irish politics is badly served by those who have been active in it, as very few memoirs exists. A fascinating comparision can be made between Finlay's "Snakes and Ladders" and "Another Spin on the Merry-Go-Round", the memoir of the Government Press Secretary under Albert Reynolds, Sean Duignan.

   In his book, Duignan gives a very prescient analysis of the role Finlay played in the Labour Party - "I like Dick Spring, but he's touchy, and when he's not touchy Fergus Finlay is touchy for him."

   "Snakes and Ladders" is well worth a read for people interested in that period when Irish politics changed irrevocably in the final decades of the Twentieth Century, despite the author's obvious bias. The tragedy is that there aren't more people like Finlay to go on the record with how they saw and helped the Irish political scene evolve into the landscape we have today.